The transition to e-mobility is clearly alive with opportunity… But needs to be carefully managed so that the world can yield all the potential benefits in full – UN chief, António Guterres.

“The growing awareness for clean air and climate change means that many governments around the world have begun embracing e-mobility,” said the UN chief during an event dedicated to electric transportation at COP24. (Image credit: Twitter)

The conference has brought together thousands of climate action decision-makers, advocates and activists, with the objective of adopting globalguidelines for the 197 parties of the 2015 ParisAgreement, when countries committed to limiting globalwarming to less than 2°C – and as close as possible to 1.5° – above pre-industrial levels.

Globally, transport accounts for one quarter of total emissions – 8 gigatons per year, according to the Intergovernmental Panel for ClimateChange (IPCC). This figure is 70 per cent higher than 30 years ago. It is estimated that over 1 billion passenger cars travel the streets and roads of the world today and, if we don't take urgent action, by 2040, the number of cars on the road could double.

The transition to e-mobility is clearly alive with opportunity… But needs to be carefully managed so that the world can yield all the potential benefits in full – UN chief, António Guterres.

"This is unsustainable, unacceptable and not compatible with the ParisAgreement targets," said José Mendes, Chairman of the TransportDecarbonization Alliance, a group of 20 countries, cities and companies committed to pushing for low-carbon transport.

The planet and public health: protecting two birds with one stone

When fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal – combust to power vehicles, that creates air pollution. This, in turn, causes health issues: according to a special report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday. Air pollution is now the fourth largest cause of death worldwide, with about seven million people dying each year from it. "The true cost of climatechange is felt in our hospitals and in our lungs," said WHO's Dr Maria Neira, who presented the report to COP24 participants. "The 2015 Parisclimateagreement is really a public health agreement," she told UN News in an interview.

The first electricvehicles were produced and sold at the beginning of the 1900s and sales peaked in the early 1910s. But technologicaldevelopments and the discovery of large oil reserves displaced the electric vehicle in favour of the combustion engine. "Now, almost 100 years later, electricvehicles are coming back and need to increasingly displace the combustion engine in favour of reducing emissions and air pollution," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, during a high-level electro-mobility event, held here at the conference in Katowice on Tuesday.

There is one major caveat, he warned the hundreds in attendance: "The growth in electricvehicles will have a significant impact on electricity demand – and this needs to be kept in mind," he said, explaining that "if not managed carefully, the additional demand will create challenges across all sections of the energy system, particularly at peak times," and that e-transport that is dependent on electricity made from fossil fuel combustion, could end up adding to the problem, not alleviating it.

"The transition to e-mobility is clearly alive with opportunity," said the Secretary-General. "But the transition needs to be carefully managed so that the world can yield all the potential benefits in full."

"Many are putting in place the policy frameworks and infrastructure needed for sustainable transport. A growing number of countries and regions have announced plans to phase out fossil fuelvehicles and to shift to e-mobility," he explained. A recent World Bank report lists some of the ideas and commitments by countries and cities to hit the road towards e-mobility. These are just a few of them:

• The United Kingdom and France intend to ban all new sales of petrol or diesel vehicles after 2040; this is also being discussed in China.

• South Korea's Government plans to supply 1 million electricvehicles in the next two years.

• India is discussing the possibility of having 15 per cent of its cars to be electric by 2023.

At COP24, on Tuesday, various climate action stakeholders adopted a proposal by the United Kingdom and Poland named the "Driving Change Together" declaration, which the UN chief hailed as "an essential step towards a decarbonized transport system", urging "all actors to support it". "If we get [electric mobility] right, then a decarbonized transport system will be part of the solution," he stated.